The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) has an innocuous name but a dangerous mission: for over forty years it has been directly pressuring companies to be socially and environmentally responsible, making it one of the oldest corporate social responsibility players in the world. Its work started with a successful effort to get General Motors to divest from apartheid-era South Africa. As disinvestment from South Africa spread, it shaped the public discourse, facilitated policy shifts, and eventually made the apartheid government a non-viable state partner. Companies couldn’t do business with the regime, and apartheid fell.

Now, the ICCR guides members to pressure companies on issues like human trafficking, water, and labor conditions, just to name a few.

It has over 300 hundred members including religious groups, socially responsibility investment funds and managers, universities, public pension funds and labor unions. As shareholders in the companies they influence, these organizations work for change from within. They sponsor shareholder initiatives and, in some cases, withhold investment. ICCR and its members are knowledgeable and determined and have a remarkable record of long-term success. They also voice concerns with a moral authority that can get the attention, and respect, of senior management.

This year’s meeting included a focus on business and human rights, more specifically on Human Rights Impact Assessment and even more specifically on Nomogaia’s work. Our own Mark Wielga helped lead an intensive workshop on Human Rights Impact Assessment and then to address the entire group. His comments were enthusiastically received with warm praise for Nomogaia’s efforts, insight and values.

This invitation from such a highly respected organization is indicative that Nomogaia’s work remains important in the field of business and human rights. No donations were used to cover the costs of our participation.

(Photo: Syracuse Peace Council Collection)